John Oliver isn’t impressed by the policies of Gary Johnson and Jill Stein
According to the late-night host, the third party candidates’ key proposals don’t stand up to the “slightest amount of scrutiny.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3O01EfM5fU
With the record-setting unfavorability numbers for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, it’s not surprising that voter are looking to third party candidates in the 2016 election. But for John Oliver’s money, the major third party candidates — Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein — have just as many flaws as Clinton and Trump, if not more.
Oliver devoted the main segment of Sunday’s Last Week Tonight to examining the candidacies of Johnson and Stein, and concluded that their major policy ideas don’t stand up to even a base level of scrutiny.
Oliver started with Stein, pointing out that she seems to have no idea how she plans to accomplish her flagship campaign goal of absolving all student debt. He confirmed this by citing an incorrect statement from Stein that “the president then has the authority to cancel the student debt using quantitative easing,” and playing a clip in which she called quantitative easing “a magic trick that basically people don’t need to understand any more about.”
“No it isn’t, though!” Oliver said. “It is a very complicated monetary policy tool, and while it might not be important for most people to understand it, you certainly have to. And I don’t think you do.”
After a few more criticisms of Stein, Oliver moved on to Gary Johnson, who, aside from numerous high-profile gaffes, has similarly impossible policy goals, Oliver said. In one clip that Oliver played, Johnson said he would eliminate the Department of Education, Department of Commerce, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, then immediately said the government would still perform the functions of those departments if they were “doing something of value,” despite not being able to name anything specific the departments do.
In another clip, an interviewer told Johnson that economists who have studied his plan to eliminate the income tax, corporate tax, abolish the IRS, and replace it all with a 28 percent consumption tax isn’t feasible, before Johnson interrupted to say, “You’re getting a little too into the weeds here.”
Oliver concluded the segment by reminding voters that while Clinton and Trump aren’t perfect candidates, Johnson and Stein certainly aren’t either.
“The more you look at Gary Johnson and Jill Stein, the more you realize the lack of coverage they complain about so much might have genuinely benefitted them,” Oliver said. “Because their key proposals crumble under the slightest amount of scrutiny.”
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